Another reason for doing this special post - besides having a DC Comics post between the X - MEN MONTH posts for Greg Capullo and Arthur Adams - is the new STARGIRL tv show where they have tweaked the DC universe history in regards to Stargirl, Starman and the Star Spangled Kid.
Because while I have mentioned the STARMAN comicbooks and all the different Starmen there have been over the years in various posts I have never done one post where I give my readers a more complete overview.
I don´t know if I can cram everything in this post but I will do my very best and even if I can´t fit everything here I can always do another post.
And if X - MEN MONTH continues I may need it. Besides I also have never done a post on Tony Harris whose art is just beyond words. Because - as I said the last time I wrote about James Robinson - I didn´t have enough good art for a full blown post. But after spending almost an entire day preparing the art for this post I could do one. Although I might throw in art by a few other artists since James Robinson´s STARMAN had a few of them who pinchhit for Tony Harris and who weren´t half bad either.
So let´s start with the history of Starman and I guess the easiest way is to go with the comic lineage and once we have established that mention where the STARGIRL tv show changed things. The first was Ted Knight and he was a member of the Justice Society of America. He was a scientist and astronomer who invented the gravity rod which he later christened the cosmic rod. Like the rest of the Justice Society of America he retired instead of revealing their identities before the McCarthy hearings and later spent decades in Limbo fighting the same battle over and over.
I know that I am a bit vague on the details about the Justice Society of America but I can´t explain all of their history. If you want that you can find a lot of videos on YouTube or if you want a recommendation from me read the AMERICA VS THE JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA and THE LAST DAYS OF THE JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA trades. Especially the second one includes all stories with the JSA members from the SECRET ORIGINS.
The important one is that the first Starman, Ted Knight was in semi - retirement for a long period of time and we have a few Starmen and star - themed heroes here. First we have Sylvester Pemberton who went by the name of Starspangled Kid and he was one of the new young recruits of the Justice Society of America together with Power Girl. And longtime readers know how hard it is for me not to go on a whole Power Girl tangent here.
Since Ted Knight was not that active at that time Sylvester used his cosmic rod and later adapted the technology for his cosmic belt which gave him similar abilities like the cosmic rod. For a time he changed his name to Skyman - not Starman - and he also became a member of INFINITY INC but since I haven´t read that many issues of the series I don´t know that much about that particular part of DC history. Plus the CRISIS thing.
Now we will return to Sylvester Pemberton later because it´s easier this way but for now there are a few other Starmen I want to address first.
As longtime followers may have noticed I am playing it fast and loose here concentrating more on the broad strokes and not every minituea detail which is the way I explain things to my sister who has a basic knowledge of comics but not such an encyclopedic memory as others. The focus of this post is James Robinson and his series like STARMAN so I am trying not to put too much confusing information in this. Because comicbook history can become very confusing and also I don´t have the time to research everything 100 percent. So I am writing most of this from memory and if there are any mistakes you can let me know in the comments below.
Anyway, one thing I have to mention is that comic companies loose their copyrights on their characters if they don´t use them for a certain amount of time. How long that time is is not important here but that is the reason why there are often various incarnations of the same hero or different heroes who use the same name. It´s all for keeping the copyright and that´s also the reason why often you either see a new series of a hero who hasn´t been around for a long time or a new team with heroes who have nothing in common. Except that the copyright is expiring soon. A comic veteran once said that the easiest way to get a story or series greenlit is to write about a hero whose copyright is about to run out.
So there was a time when DC Comics was not doing a lot with Ted Knight Starman and because they wanted to keep the copyright for the Starman name there were other heroes who were called Starman and which James Robinson all managed to incorporate into his brilliant STARMAN series.
One was Mikaal Tomas, a blue skinned alien from the planet Talok III which is the sister planet of Talok VIII, the home planet of Tasmia Mallor a.k.a. Shadow Lass from the Legion of Superheroes. Like a lot of aliens in comics, tv or movies he came to earth to conquer it but turned against his own people to defend the human race much like Marvel Comics original male Captain Mar - Vell. He used flight discs like Mister Miracle and had a medallion with a sonic crystal around his neck but the gem eventually became embedded in his chest and allowed him to fire bolts of energy.
This version of Starman was created by Gerry Conway who liked the name but didn´t want to revive Ted Knight because he wanted a more cosmic Starman. Initially he was only supposed to be a one - off hero for issue 12 of 1ST ISSUE SPECIAL but he had a few more appearances. I think he did a lot of sex and drugs and rock´n roll, got amnesia and fought other heroes for a while. The Wikipedia page says that he was one of DC Comics first openly gay character but I´m not so sure since the first one was the Pied Piper in FLASH. Also when Mikaal was introduced his sexual orientation was never addressed and it was only revealed in Robinson´s STARMAN that he was gay. Which was decades after Pied Piper came out of the closet.
Anyway, continuing with the different Starmen, after the blue skinned Starman from the 70s we got Prince Gavyn who was also an alien but with pinky skin and he was co - created by Paul Levitz and Steve Ditko in 1980.
Gavyn was the spoiled playboy prince of an empire but when the emperor died his older sister became the ruler and to eliminate any rivals Gavyn was thrown out of the airlock of a spaceship as was the custom. What nobody knew was that Gavyn was a mutant who could survive in space and the floating prince was found by the mysterious mystic Mn´torr who bestowed upon him a set of jeweled wrist bands ( also like Marvel Comics male Captain Mar - Vell ) and a staff which allowed him to fly interstellar distances and shoot bolts of energy. For a time he kept his identity a secret but after his sister was killed one year into her reign he became the ruler of his people and their protector. Which was what got him killed in CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS. At least for a time because comics. At first he wore a red and yellow costume but later on it was changed to blue.
But the 80s weren´t done with Starman and in 1988 Roger Stern and Tom Lyle came up with a new one, this time an earthling whose name was Will Payton. He got his powers from being struck by a bolt of energy from a satellite that was supposed to give them to somebody else. His powers included flight, super strength, firing bolts of energy from his hands, a mild amount of shapeshifting and the ability to alter his appearance and he even guest starred in the post CRISIS Superman books where he helped Kal - El to recharge after the Parasite had left him almost drained. When it came out I didn´t care too much about the series but now I would really like to read it as Will Payton seems to be a very interesting character.
Will Payton apparently died fighting Eclipso but that was later retconned by James Robinson. In a storyline that took Starman Jack Knight ( we will come to him later ) and Mikaal Tomas into space and the future where they encountered Starboy from the Legion of Super - Heroes it was revealed that the energy that gave Will his powers was the essence of Prince Gavyn. At the moment it is not clear if Will Payton was killed by Gavyn´s energy and Gavyn lives now in Will Payton´s body, Will Payton and Prince Gavyn merged or Prince Gavyn was reincarnated in Will Payton. Oy.
With this we have finally reached the 90s and it´s back to the original Ted Knight and his offspring. David Knight became the new Starman wearing the red costume and wielding the cosmic rod of his father. He was killed in the zero issue of James Robinson´s STARMAN series and the mantle was passed on to his younger brother Jack Knight who was very reluctant to continue the heroic family tradition. But if you think that this was the end of David Knight in STARMAN you couldn´t be more wrong. Every year David returned for a chat with his younger brother and these TIMES PAST stories are many fans favorites. Back then I liked them well enough but I would like to re - read them now that I walked in Jack Knight´s shoes.
What I liked right from the start was James Robinson´s STARMAN and I guess I was at the right age that a reluctant hero who wore a t - shirt and a leather jacket instead of a regular costume appealed to me. That he was into collecting pop culture relevant memorabilia was not very interesting for me since I have only gotten interested into that in the last few years but the fact that he was also a collector of stuff like me was enough to tell me that this would be a very different super hero. He also reworked his father´s cosmic rod into the stylish cosmic staff that we all know Today.
Jack Knight was Starman for a time but he was not fated to fill out this role forever. And this is where Stargirl came in. I know, you have already given up hope we will come back to this but this is where all we discussed up to this point pays off. In 1999 Geoff Johns and Lee Moder co - created Courtney Whitmore whose entire name, appearance and personality was patterned after Johns´ sister who died in the explosion of TWA flight 800 in 1996. She became the new Star - Spangled Kid when she found Sylvester Pemberton´s costume and his cosmic belt in her stepfather Pat Dugan´s stuff to irk him. Pat then built the S.T.R.I.P.E. robo suit to accompany Courtney on her adventures and protect her. When Jack Knight retired from the hero biz he gave his cosmic staff to Courtney who changed her name to Stargirl and became a member of the Justice Society of America.
So now that we have covered the main beats of the Starman history we can take a look at what was changed for the tv series. The biggest thing is that Ted Knight and his legacy was completely erased from the Starman line but I guess the producers of the tv show didn´t want to confuse the viewers unnecessarily. Another factor is that the series is helmed by Geoff Johns so the focus will be on Stargirl Courtney instead of the Starmen.
Although I have heard that James Robinson wrote some of the episodes so who knows, maybe one of the Knight Starmen will make an appearance.
So like in the comic Courtney goes through her stepfather´s stuff but instead of the cosmic belt she finds the cosmic staff. Because on this earth there apparently has never been a Ted Knight Starman - at least as far as we know - so Sylvester Pemberton was the Starman of the Justice Society of America. Who unlike in the comics all died - except for Pat Dugan and Wildcat - fighting the Injustice Society of America. And it´s not a spoiler that Wildcat didn´t die in the fight against the Injustice Society because it is later revealed that Pat Dugan came to Blue Valley following the notes of Wildcat who was tracking the archenemies before his death.
What also was changed is that instead of just being a scientific tool the cosmic staff seems to be a sentient being that chooses its wielder. I´m not sure why that change was made and if they felt it was necessary to Disney - size the series. So apart from these changes I really like the series although at first I had hoped that they would have gone with an actress that brought more of an oomph to say to the role of Courtney Whitmore.
But after seeing the first three episodes I have to say that Brec Bassinger has the perfect body for the role of a teenage gymnast and who knows, she might turn from a Brec Bassinger into a Kim Basinger worthy sexbomb.
I don´t want to say too much about the series because I want to avoid spoilers for those who haven´t seen it yet but waiting on the next episode is really hard. So far we have had two incarnations of the Justice Society of America - and Stargirl - on tv with Smallville and DC´s Lesbians of Tomorrow and they really did a great job of bringing the original team ( minus the real Ted Knight Starman of course ) on the screen in their original costumes. Not costumes they changed to look better on screen but their original costumes from the comics. Because despite what Hollywood wants you to believe you really CAN bring the original costumes from the comicbooks onto the screens without them looking ridiculous.
The show is shot excellent, the special effects are top notch and the cast is on point. And I especially like Luke Wilson who plays Pat Dugan. I don´t know why but I like him as an actor and I think he´s the kind of guy I would like to have a beer with. They also brought the supervillains to the screen in a realistic way without skimming on the super powers although I don´t know why in the tv and movie adaptions the people with ice powers are portrayed as the most powerful beings when they are often the weakest members of a group in the comics. And aside from the usual SJW tropes ( like the most racial diverse school in whitebread America ever but that may be a deliberate plot point ) it´s highly enjoyable.
Before wrapping things up in the comic part of the post for Today there are still a few Starmen I haven´t mentioned. First off there were two related to Batman : in DETECTIVE COMICS 247 Batman was hypnotized into being afraid of bats so he changed his costume and took on the moniker Starman and in DETECTIVE COMICS 286 there was a villain called Starman.
1,000 years in the future we have Thom Kallor from the Legion of Super - Heroes who goes by Starboy and only later took on the name Starman. As a big Legion fan I was particularly glad that James Robinson worked him into his STARMAN run and also that he was in Geoff Johns JSA ( and in THY KINGDOM COME, one of my favorite stories ever ) and Perez LEGION OF THREE WORLDS. He also shines in JUSTICE LEAGUE vs THE FATAL FIVE.
Even further in the future - in the 853rd century - we have Ferris Knight, a distant descendant of Jack Knight and the ( female ) Mist´s son who is a member of the Justice Legion Alpha. And going from the far future to the old West, in JONAH HEX 27 of the Justin Gray / Jimmy Palmiotti series we meet Victor Sono whose father was a Sheriff who was killed by a group of lawmen because he was crippled. Victor dedicated his life to kill unjust lawmen and adding their sheriff´s stars to his coat calling himself Starman.
Like a lot of the issues it is drawn beautifully by mi paisano Jordi Bernet .
Last but not least we have this guy, Starman el libertario but I have no idea who he is, what his powers are or where you can find his comics.
And that´s all about Stargirl, the legion of Starmen and the Justice Society of America and we will have to continue with James Robinson´s other comic series THE GOLDEN AGE and LEAVE IT TO CHANCE in the next part.
Since we have no links for this post we are going right into the celebrity birthdays for Today which start - could it be any other way ? - with retired 32E porn superstar Jenna Presley who celebrates her 33rd birthday. Jenna performed in over 275 x - rated films and that she is retired is sadly no April Fool prank. Going over her biography I found out that her real name is Brittini Ruiz so we might actually be related. I would still do her, I mean who wouldn´t love to be a kissing ( or f - word - ing ) cousin with Jenna ?
The buxom beauty started her career in the adult entertainment industry as a topless dancer in Mexico at the age of 15 after getting drunk for the first time. Ah, the many wonders of alcohol, once again the right dosage of beverage has changed the course of history for the better. Jenna is one of the few adult movie stars who always elevates any movie she´s in and her christian beliefs have never stopped her from going all the way in front of the camera although it also might have been a factor for leaving the porn business. As were her bouts with anorexia, drugs and several suicide attempt. I hope it all works out in the end. Until then we have her movies and while I haven´t seen all of them from the ones I did her best ones are the Doctor Adventures series. I could use a doctor like that.
Now with the celebrity birthdays it is always the question if I should include somebody who has already been in a previous post - especially when the posts get long - but I think in the case of Jenna Presley it is warranted because I can now confirm that she not only left the porn industry but she married and became a preacher. She seems quite happy with herself and looks really great and if you still believe I am making this up you can go on YouTube and find a lot of interviews with Jenna Presley.
Coming from sexbombs who used to be in porn to sexbombs who should have been in porn, one of the biggest MILFs on italian tv turns 55 and with all the changes I have made over the past few years I should really do a new version of the cult siren entry but I guess that will have to wait until I can do a new batch of animated GIFs for her. Because without that making another re - post makes no sense. I know this is a bummer for my longtime followers who were always looking forward to Simona´s annual re - posts.
Especially since one of her posts used to be my go - to link for TUTTI FRUTTI. I just love wikipedia because I have never heard it be described anywhere else as a soft - porn tits - out show but I guess it kind of was .
One of the main attractions of the game show TUTTI FRUTTI was of course brabuster Monique Sluyter who not only had no problem taking off her clothes on tv she also often disrobed for various gentleman magazines.
Regular readers of this blog already know that I cast her as Fire a.k.a. Beatriz da Costa in the Andy Sidaris Special of my popular Casting the Justice League of America movie series and I also kept mentioning her in all kind of posts like the annual re - posts about italian mega soccer MILF Simona Ventura until I decided to give Monique and the Tutti Frutti girls their own post which I re - posted in 2016 in a new and better version.
But the blow up sex doll from the Netherlands was not only in PLAYBOY multiple times she also was a big factor in my obsession on blondes with giant breast like Power Girl with her impersonation of Marilyn Monroe .
And I just wrote a spin - off post with all the usual links to Janet Jones Gretzky and real live Power Girl Leslie Easterbrook who had the most famous scene in Police Academy 4 - Citizens on Patrol in which she emerges from a pool in a wet t - shirt. And while the obligatory Andy Sidaris actresses / playmates / sexbombs like Roberta Vasquez , Ava Cadell , brunette Cynthia Brimhall, Dona Speir , Julie Strain , Shae Marks , Julie K. Smith and Samantha Phillips are mentioned the main part is about blonde brabuster Monique Sluyter and the obligatory plethora of Tutti Frutti girls .
Now usually I just include a short part with them in the posts but this time I did a somewhat longer version so I could include all the new download links I found while writing this post. I just recently included a whole slew of new ones but those are just for compilation and mixes while these new ones are not only for entire episodes - which are always ultra rare - but for german episodes which are even rarer . Some of them even include my favorite Tutti Frutti girl ( whom you can see just below ).
Another somewhat comic related anniversary is the 50th birthday of Brad Meltzer who has written other things besides comics. I am always cautious when writers from other genres try to write comicbooks because unlike other people I don´t have an inferiority complex about reading comics so I don´t feel the need to validate this passion of mine by having writers from accepted areas like books, movies or tv come in and " elevate " this art form. But I have to give credit where credit is due, Identity Crisis was a well written mini series otherwise people would not have been so upset about what happened in its pages. If it had been it would have just been dismissed as not part of the canon like so many other bad comic stories.
On the other side his run on GREEN ARROW left me a bit underwhelmed.
We have a new PLAYBOY - related entry in the annals of cult sirens with sleekly sensational asian love kitten Sung Hi Lee and she almost didn´t make it because all my pictures of her were either lost while changing computers or during one of the many purges to get rid of unused material.
Sung Hi Lee has a round anniversary with 50 and the reason why I said that it´s PLAYBOY - related is that - despite what I thought - the asian sexbomb with the stunning 33B - 23 - 34 measurements has never been a playmate.
She does however have the honor of being the first asian model on the cover of PLAYBOY and she did appear a dozen times in the magazine which is nothing to scoff at. She also was in one of the EDENQUEST videos but I think I first saw her as one of the girls of the Hawaiian Tropic and not in the PLAYBOY pictorial or the video Girls of the Hawaiian Tropic but as part of the trading cards. Yes, I have mentioned this before but the late 80s and early 90s were the high time of bikini contests and there were more than you can count. The best were of course the California Bikini Girl Contest series of which the best parts were added to The Bikini Open.
They spawned the California Foxhunt Bikini Contest , the California Foxhunt Lingerie Contest and the California Foxhunt Flashdance Contest although I am not entirely sure what the criteria were for the last one.
But before The Bikini Open made it on german tv through the sports channels DSF and Eurosport all you could get in Germany were the trading cards you would find at comic conventions. So aside from the freebies I got through Advance Comics - which was the predecessor to Previews - the first trading cards I bought were not comicbook related but from such adult series like The Bikini Open, Benchwarmers or The Hawaiian Tropic.
Isn´t it strange how things change ? In the 90s trading cards were the biggest thing which probably helped a lot of comic shops to stay in business but now I have no idea if it´s still relevant. I personally was never obsessed with trading cards and only got some complete sets when I was interested in the artist like Jeff Smith or Mike Allred . And I still have a huge stack of the trading cards that came with the Previews catalogue.
Some of them are probably worth something because there are a few uncut sets with six or eight cards of Mark Bagley´s Spider - Man or such.
And of course I still have the Jim Lee X - Men set. To Today´s comicbook readers who can get almost anything through the internet it may sound strange but when american comicbooks - and more importantly american pop culture through stuff like trading cards, posters or videos - first became available to german comicbook fans through the pages of Previews it was a big deal. Especially when they added the Previews for adults.
Which is where I got my first tapes of the IRONMAN swimsuit spectacular videos ( and for more pics, GIFs and videos of the hot sexbombs that were featured in those videos like April Hunter, Cori Nadine, LeAnna Scott or Linda O´Neal check out the second part of this years salute to Tylene Buck ) but also the Spawn movie and the Spawn animated series.
What can I say ? In the 90s Spawn ruled. I think the cartoon still holds up.
Sung Hi Lee was born on April 1, 1970 in Eunpyong - Gu ( Gija - Chon ), a borough of Seoul, South Korea. She moved to the United States in 1978 and spent a large part of her childhood moving around from city to city.
Sung Lee was a studious child and teenager spending more time at the library than at stay - overs and parties before attended Ohio State University on a scholarship for three years. During a visit to a local night club she joined a pageant which drew attention to her. She soon received a scholarship and started modeling. This led to that and several months later Sung Lee landing in the pages of PLAYBOY. Sung Lee, still a college student, put her academics on hold to pursue modeling in New York City.
Her short stature made it hard to land permanent gigs. However, during a trip to Los Angeles she met once more with PLAYBOY and from 1993 to 1998 appeared 12 times for the magazine. While in Los Angeles, she also made movie and silver screen contacts and landed a few parts on the Mortal Kombat tv series, the Black Scorpion tv series ( I have written at length about all of the BLACK SCORPION movies, the tv series and the comicbooks in my post on b - queen Joan Severance and about the other cult sirens who were on BLACK SCORPION in my second FEMME FATALE FRIDAY post about Will Eisner´s THE SPIRIT ), V. I. P. with Pamela Anderson ( for more on such baywatchable babes like Erika Eleniak , Krista Allen or natural born go go dancer Carmen Elektra check out my latest BAYWATCH SPIN - OFF POSTS ) and the short lived Birds of Prey series where she played Lady Shiva amongst others - as well as advertisement spots.
She also was featured in a few movies including Christmas Vacation 2 : Cousin Eddie´s Island Adventure which is the real reason why I included Sung Hi Lee this year as I found the following clip just a few days ago.
Speaking of tv writing, when I read that Michael Praed turns 57 I knew that name sounded familiar and after doing a bit of research I found out that he played the lead character Robin of Loxley in Robin of Sherwood. A pox on your house imdb, for not making that the first thing on your known for section. For all those out there who missed the 80s and who only heard of the great cult series from that decade, this was one of them.
This series was a monster and a worldwide success. But not only did it make Robin Hood cool again and has one of the most macho endings in all of tv history it also laid the groundwork for other adaptions like Robin Hood : Prince Of Thieves. Kevin Costner draws a lot on the charmed rogue Michael Praed played and Morgan Freeman´s role of Azeem was blatantly swiped from Nazir. I also have to thank this tv series for introducing me to the mystical music of Clannad who provided the mindblowing soundtrack.
Speaking of great tv series, Anette O´Toole celebrates her 68th birthday who is best known to Today´s tv audiences as Martha Kent on Smallville ( which a lot of people didn´t know was related to the Superman mythos ) and to people from my generation as Lana Lang in Superman III - The Lightning of Steel how it was called here in Germany for some reason.
We are staying with comics and to my shame I had to do a bit of research on Francois Thomas who turns 69 and created one of my favorite comics Stan Caiman which is all about sexbombs with incredibly huge breasts.
You can see how this caught my attention. I don´t think he is actually working on the series and what has been published so far has been collected in two volumes. Naturally the cover above is on my list of comic covers I would like Yaya Han to re - enact ( since we are on the subject of women with giant - sized airbags ) although I would make her hula hoop as a bare chested night nurse on top of a cocktail the covers main focus.
In 2016 I finally managed to do another post about Darick Robertson in which I mentioned the BREAKDOWNS storyline that introduced Power Girl´s famous coconut bra costume. And I just want to say that I still have not given up on a Yaya Han Power Girl coconut bra cosplay ( with the tiniest coconut shells you can find although compared to her huge 40D oppai all coconut shells probably look small no matter how big they are ) as she has already shown that she does a terrific Power Girl cosplay and she certainly has no problem filling out the magical cleavage window.
So far I´ve written six posts on Yaya - two of them are pretty safe but the other four are absolutely not safe for work - and I keep mentioning her on various JLA casting posts and any other posts involving asian sexbombs like Kiana Tom, Ava Cadell, Akira Lane, Miko Lee, Gail Kim or Minka and I swear the completely NSFW BIG YAYA HAN POST is still in the pipeline. In the meantime I have made two new posts about Yaya which showcase a part of her incredible anatomy that I have ignored too often - her legs.
Which is unbelievable because not only does Yaya have a set of legs that can give you an instant erection she has also demonstrated in her Chun Li pics that she can spread her legs better than Jennifer Lopez in Hustlers .
You can read more about why Yaya should be my private nurse and how she inspired my new comic VERSAUTE BETTGESCHICHTEN in this post .
Aprops sexbombs with big oppais, a german sex icon from my misspent youth celebrates her 73rd anniversary : Ingrid Steeger. She was in a lot of erotic comedies of the 80s although she became best known as starring resident sexbomb on the german variety / cabaret cult show KLIMBIM.
I remember the show was must see tv ( not only because Ingrid wore really skimpy outfits and sometimes even went topless ) and it´s really indicative of the kind of tv program we have Today that a show from the 70s has more political commentary and social critique than most german tv productions from Today. You can find some episodes on YouTube but since it´s been over 30 years since I watched them I have no idea which ones are the best. In any case here´s an episode with young Ingrid Steeger.
Ingrid was never quite happy with her image as a sexbomb / jokester girl but I have to say that being sexy AND funny is no small feat to pull off if you consider how many of Todays young actresses try at this and fail.
Anyway, Ingrid most stuck to what she did best and she did not only bring a godgiven natural sensuality but also a kind of naiivitee to her roles. I am not the only one who must have thought that Busenwunder Ingrid Steeger was predestined for the role of sexy air hostess with her body that won´t quit because she did indeed play that part - alongside german mega sexbomb Iris Berben who played the straight girl to Ingrid´s crazy girl - in Zwei Himmlische Töchter ( Two Heavenly Daughters ) and it´s one of her most famous roles. If you don´t know Iris Berben, she is one of those actresses who don´t seem to age as she looked like 20 when she was already 50. Zwei Himmlische Töchter is a funny series that has some famous german actors on it like Dieter Hildebrandt and if you watch it Today it´s hard to understand why it was only on tv after midnight. Sadly there are only two episodes on YouTube and I already posted both of them . But instead I have an ever rarer find : an episode of Susi, a series with Ingrid Steeger I never knew existed and which is not available on DVD.
As coincidences would have it one of the many movies Ingrid Steeger starred in is Die Tote aus der Themse ( Angels of Terror was the english title ) a movie based on a story by the late Edgar Wallace who´s birth anniversary is also Today. And to top things off Uschi Glas is also in it.
This is really a callback to my early youth and all those black and white Edgar Wallace movies that left Germany´s streets empty when they first aired on tv ( which coined the word Straßenfeger which literally means street sweeper ). I just hope the video stays long enough on YouTube.
From the master of black and white crime movies we come to another candidate in our Dearly Departed section who has spent a lot of time in black and white movies : the great late Toshiro Mifune. Whenever I hear that some people don´t watch black and white movies I just shake my head because they will miss such classic films like The Seven Samurais, Rashomon, Sanjuro or Yojimbo by Akira Kurosawa. Toshiro also starred in one of my father´s favorite movies Kagemusha - Shadow Warrior which he probably watched a dozen times and which I still have not seen from start to finish. But my favorite series with Toshiro Mifune was always Shogun.
We are closing out Today´s birthdays with a shoutout to Debbie Reynolds with Good Morning from movie classic Singin´ In The Rain. Lately I have written a lot about musicals - like in my cult siren post for Cyd Charisse - and initially I wanted to post this on Gene Kelly´s next anniversary.
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